Students Resolve to Fight Communalisation and Privatisation at SFI All India Conference

The 16th All India Conference of the Students’ Federation of India, held in Shimla, concluded on November 2. The conference, which was inaugurated on October 30, was attended by 655 delegates from 24 states.

The conference was inaugurated by the All-India SFI President, VP Sanu. On behalf of the Reception Committee, delegates were welcomed by former SFI leader from Himachal Pradesh, and current CPI(M) legislator from Theog – Rakesh Singha. P Sainath, renowned journalist and Professor R Ramkumar from TISS, Mumbai, addressed the inaugural session.

Sainath, in his speech, spoke about the blatant attempts of saffronisation and privatisation of education. He appealed to the students to unite, and fight against the social and economic fundamentalist forces.

Appropriately, the slogan for the conference was ‘Save education, Save India and Defeat Communalism’.

In the last two and half years – since the last All India Conference – the students have been witnessing an intensified attack on education by the NDA-led central government. The toxic combination of communalisation and commercialisation have worsened the condition of the student community to an unprecedented level. Attempts were made to turn all the public-funded premier higher education centres into mere factories of saffron political propaganda. Year after year, the amount of fund allocated to education is being reduced. Atmosphere of critical thinking, which is the soul of any academic institution, has been replaced by the authoritarian diktats, and the selective discipline in the name of ultra-nationalism. SFI has been mobilising students across the nation to fight the anti-student policies of the government.

Political-organisational report was presented on the second day of the conference by Vikram Singh, former general secretary of all-India SFI. The report was discussed by 15 representatives. In the meanwhile, a seminar on communalism was organised, in which, Ram Puniyani, former professor from IIT Mumbai, addressed the students. He highlighted the ongoing attempts to tweak history, in order to create a communal atmosphere. He said that the history needs to be seen as history, and it is necessary to avoid and counter this false propaganda.

In the conference, Sandeep Sourav, Shubham Bannerjee and Bhavik Raja from All India Students’ Federation (AISF) as well reiterated the unity of the Leftist student organisations to fight communalism and commercialisation of education, and attack on democratic rights in the session. All India Kisan Sabha's Chairman Ashok Dhawle, All India Agriculture Mazdoor Co-Secretary Suneet Chopra, and All India General Secretary of Democratic Youth Federation of India, Abhay Mukherjee, extended their congratulations to the conference.

The SFI conference elected a 93-member Central Executive Committee (with 9 vacancies), which in turn elected Mayukh Biswas as the new general secretary and V P Sanu as the president of the organisation. The CEC also elected a 19-member central secretariat with two vacancies. The newly elected office bearers include Dipsita Dhar and Srijan Bhattacharya (elected as joint secretaries) and Pratikur Rehman (elected as vice president) among others.

Speaking to Newsclick, Vikram Kaith, general secretary, SFI, HPU, said, “The conference has received a positive response, and we were delighted to host it in Shimla, for the first time. We got tremendous support from our comrades who put in so much effort to organise the conference, and we are grateful to all the local people also who have shown immense support.”

The conference concluded with a huge rally which started from Bhattakuffar (the venue of the conference). More than 2,000 people took part in the rally, apart from the 655 delegates.